Normally, being bought out for close to $1 billion is a cause for celebration. But not everyone's been cheering since the Climate Corp., a 6-year-old weather data and insurance company in San Francisco, was purchased by agribusiness giant Monsanto, known best in some quarters as the chief supplier of genetically modified seeds and powerful herbicides

"I've had to do quite a bit of explaining to people," said CEO David Friedberg, whose company officially joined the Monsanto family this month for approximately $930 million. The opponents included his father, and in an e-mail to Climate Corp.'s employees Friedberg acknowledged the anxiety with an imaginary email from a family member or corporate recruiter headlined, "Do you REALLY want to work at the MOST EVIL COMPANY IN THE WORLD??!!"

Friedberg certainly does. A former Google engineer, he co-founded the data-driven "weather insurance and risk management" company in 2007 with another ex-Google employee, angel investor Siraj Khaliq.

Monsanto "has by far the best data out there, and we're able to make better use of it than anyone else," he said Monday before flying to St. Louis to meet with Monsanto executives.

Originally named WeatherBill, the company has 200 employees, mostly scientists and software engineers in San Francisco and Seattle, along with insurance personnel in Kansas City, Kan. It uses big data to track and analyze weather and crop-specific conditions, and provide future forecasts - sometimes called "weather derivatives" - at the touch of a farmer's mobile device. Crop insurance is purchased through an agent.

Hiring, space to grow

Early investors include Silicon Valley's New Enterprise Associates, Google Ventures and Khosla Ventures. Friedberg, who would not disclose the company's financials, said hiring and office expansion will be ramped up. Like virtually every other economic activity, he explained, the analog world of farming is becoming increasingly digital, especially in the era of extreme weather and what's called "precision farming."

"The future of agriculture is going to be in data science and software. It helps growers and farmers make decisions leading to better outcomes," he said.

Monsanto, which reported $2.2 billion in revenue last quarter, believes Climate Corp. is just the company to lead the charge. "The Climate Corp. team brings leading expertise that will continue to greatly benefit farmers and their bottom line, and we want to expand upon this tremendous work and broaden their reach to more crops and more world areas," said Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant.

"This is the entry ticket into a $20 billion market opportunity and it starts fast," he said on an investors call. "It's an important addition. It will strengthen our growth rate over the coming decade."

'Out of context facts'

If initial online posts are any indication, however, many see the acquisition as Monsanto's latest move to rule the agricultural world, and in harmful ways. Friedberg, in his lengthy employee e-mail, puts much of it down to "innuendo, anecdotal evidence, and out of context facts ... rooted in a lack of understanding and fear of the unknown." Meaning genetically modified organisms, in which he's a firm believer. "A lot of people are misinformed and really scared," he said Monday. "But scientifically it's a miracle."

In the e-mail, he urged his employees to learn more about GMO, as he has. But to further reassure them, he said the company will remain "as an independently run business. We are not going to be 'integrated' into Monsanto. No one will 'work for Monsanto.' What we do, how we operate and our culture, are still our decisions."

Friedberg said his efforts are paying off. "When people understand what the company does, they change 180 degrees. We haven't lost any employees."

In his e-mail he wrote: "I am not the kind of person that would take easily to partnering with a company that 'poisons the world's food system,' lays waste to the land, puts farmers out of business, or creates a monoculture that threatens the global food supply."